Audience measurement, such as television ratings, measures how many people are in an audience in relation to television viewership. Accordingly, audience measurements may be used by broadcasters and advertisers to determine the demographics of who is watching a television program, rather than simply just how many people are watching. For instance, a ratings point may be defined as a measure of viewership of a particular television program. One single television ratings point represents 1% of television households in the surveyed area in a given minute. In other words, if there are an estimated 110 million television households in the United States, a single national ratings point represents 1,100,000 television households.
When used for the broadcast of a program, the average rating across the duration of the show is typically given. Additionally, ratings points may often be used for specific demographics rather than just households. For example, a ratings point among an 18 to 49 year-olds demographic is equivalent to 1% of all the 18 to 49 year-olds in the country.
Additionally, in television broadcasting, the term syndication may refer to the licensing of the right to a broadcast television program by multiple television stations without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where broadcast programming is scheduled by television networks with local independent affiliates, particularly in the United States. The three types of syndication may include “first-run syndication”, which is programming that is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show and is made specifically to sell directly into syndication; “off-network syndication”, which is the licensing of a program that was originally run on network TV or in some cases first-run syndication (e.g., a “rerun”); and public broadcasting syndication.
Furthermore, streaming media services and an increase in the number of original TV programs have impacted the once-lucrative syndication market. After suffering major losses on network hits, cable executives now have to scrutinize the value of rerunning a successful show before they invest in it. With this in mind, it would be beneficial to predict audience measurements of a television program for syndication to allow the media industry make quick decisions that will benefit brands and their audiences.